The Charge

Opening Statement

Among the many classic films Warner Bros. has released through the years have
been the Tim Burton Batman films, Citizen Kane, and The Exorcist. Beerfest is not a
Warner classic, however it has been released on high definition disc before
these other films. So is it worthy to spring some more money to get a prettier
beer pong picture for your buck?

Facts of the Case

Super Troopers alumni Paul
Soter and Erik Stolhanske play Jan and Todd Wolfhouse, brothers who are assigned
the task of taking their grandfather's ashes to Germany to be placed among
friends. However, their late grandfather, Johann (Donald Sutherland, JFK), has a bad reputation in the motherland.
He stole the German's famous beer recipe and left his brother Wolfgang
(Jürgen Prochnow, Das Boot) back in
the land of the Rhine, while their mother (Cloris Leachman, Blazing Saddles) took him to
America. Jan and Todd discover this secret after they encounter a Fight Club-like speakeasy dedicated to
the pursuits of barley, ale, and hops; a place called Beerfest, where a frat boy
could play every drinking game there was and be completely happy. After they're
humiliated by the host Germans, one of whom is Saturday Night Live's Will
Forte, the boys construct a team to come back and take the Germans in the
following year. So for the next 90 minutes or so, Jan and Todd pull together the
team, including Landfill, Fink, and Barry, played by Kevin Heffernan, Steve
Lemme and Jay Chandrasekhar respectively, with Chandrasekhar directing the
film.

The Evidence

A friend of mine recommended that I watch Beerfest while drinking, or
at the very least with a bit of a buzz on, to really appreciate it. But, since
he made the recommendation to me while we were both drinking, and we didn't wind
up watching it, what does that say about Beerfest? All I can tell you is
this is another release by the Broken Lizard Comedy Troupe, home of Super Troopers, Club Dread, and other film works. Not
having seen any of the other Broken Lizard films, I'm going to go out on a limb
and say that Beerfest is a more than fair representation of their type of
comedy.

This unrated version of Beerfest is five minutes longer than the
theatrical version, and I'll presume that the theatrical runtime of 110 minutes
is a mite too long. I don't know what was added. But after seeing the film and
its longish joke about manually stimulating frogs, first I was thinking that
they took a page out of the Savage Steve Holland playbook, then I realized it
just wasn't that funny because it kept going on and on and on. However, that's
not to say the film is a complete waste of time, because there are some genuine
moments where I was laughing. It took me back to college and the days of beer
pong, quarters, and the time tested game of "Asshole." But just like
college, most of us have probably outgrown much of what people in their early
twenties used to do. Or perhaps I'm way way older than I'm giving myself credit
for. Even after some of the laughs, you get exaggerated German accents, like
everyone was doing a Schwarzenegger impression, and the Prochnow nods to his
most famous film were funny if they weren't brought up in each act once or
twice. You get montages, training feats of strength and alcoholic prowess, some
frivolous nudity, and very little else.

The film itself is presented in a 1080p/VC-1 encoded transfer that looks OK.
It's not necessarily a reference piece, but the image looks a little too flat
for me. The Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 surround track, however, was a bigger
surprise than I was expecting. Clear dialogue, low end fidelity for explosions,
burping and farting (the latter two are probably redundant, depending on if you
live with a Dad who likes chili), and more surround effects that I was
expecting. Color me amber for…surprised? The extras are holdovers from the
standard-definition release, with two commentary tracks. The first is from
Chandrasekhar and Lemme, the second is with the other "Lizards." Why
this wouldn't be a consolidated track with everyone is beyond me, but I suppose
they go through the usual stories about their times getting boozed up on set and
whatnot. Yawn. Following that is close to a half hour of deleted scenes with
optional commentary, begging the question of how a film like this would have
worked if it were two hours and twenty-three minutes. There are a couple more
looks at the production of the film along with a trailer, but by this point
you're already crashing on your dad's sofa in the basement because you can't
drive, right?

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Like I said before, there were some laughs, and Chandrasekhar's night of love
with Mo'nique after putting on a large pair of beer goggles is funny in parts
too. But you could also make the case that he's trying to make his friends look
bad, because he got the darkest (and funniest) laughs of the film, but they were
few and far between.

Closing Statement

As I understand it, these guys graduated from Colgate University and have
been making movies for awhile. But if you're looking for a North American comedy
group to succeed The Kids in the Hall, or Saturday Night Live,
their claim to lineage doesn't justify their spotty repertoire. If you liked the
film and have an HD player, it's probably worth the slight video and noticeable
audio upgrades, but if you're demoing the soundtrack for someone, I will find
you, and I will hurt you.

The Verdict

The court's Jay Chandrasekhar bias aside, the verdict is for the Broken
Lizard troupe to spend one week playing non-stop rounds of Beer Hunter until
they relieve themselves and promise to put together a film that is actually
funny.